One customer, multiple satellite sites, myriad localised supplier contracts.
Is that a managed service nightmare that sounds familiar?
In a world where competition, choice and autonomy is often encouraged, many multi-site organisations leave it to local managers to source suppliers of essential services.
But when it comes to telephony, that kind of complexity can negate the game-changing efficiencies that are on offer via the cloud.
For those efficiencies to deliver on their potential, simplicity must prevail; technology must integrate; and unification must be achieved.
Nowhere is that challenge more acute than in the education sector – where centrally-controlled yet geographically-disparate schools procure their own systems and where the resulting technological disconnects can conspire against best practice.
Cue: reseller opportunity.
“The pandemic demonstrated the critical importance to schools of the ability to work remotely and for communications to be seamless,” says Jon Dailey, Channel Director at European leaders in NextGen voice-centric business communications NFON, whose innovative ‘Cloudya’ hosted telephony platform recently began transforming the way more than 30 UK schools operate.
The schools – part of four multi-academy trusts located in York and the wider Yorkshire and Humber region – have now shifted seamlessly across to NFON’s cloud-based platform.
The deployment and ongoing support of the system are managed by NFON’s reseller Vital York, a specialist education technology partner which provides professional IT solutions to schools, academies and multi-academy education trusts.
It responded to a tender for a 21st-century telephony service, which would enable a trust-wide solution with local customizations that could address the communications needs of each school.
Previously many schools had separate billing arrangements and supplier relationships so there was a clear need to roll out a new system that would create uniformity across the estate, add functionality and reduce costs.
“We were delighted to win the tender to deliver a telecoms system that would fundamentally streamline and enhance the telecoms across so many schools,” says Vital York Managing Director Steve Pattison.
“We recommended the NFON system as we knew it would address and exceed all of the requirements.”
The new functionality was rolled-out to 700 seats – each school benefitting from a bespoke set-up aligned to their individual handset and call routing requirements.
Users are able to access the system via the NFON mobile app and conference calling is included.
“That is a particularly important feature for the schools’ senior leadership teams who need to conduct regular parent-governor calls,” says Pattison.
The project is a clear demonstration of the power of cloud-based, unified communications to dramatically transform and enhance the day-to-day performance of multi-site organisations.
As the world – and the education sector in particular – continues to come to terms with the long-term management of the pandemic, the need to communicate and collaborate remotely is unlikely to diminish any time soon.
“The education sector is a strategic priority for NFON,” says Dailey.
“That is why we have invested so heavily in developing functionality that helps schools communicate more effectively with parents and staff.
“The power of NFON was highly evident during the lockdown as it meant that remote working and communication was seamless, enabling schools to focus on other priorities during that difficult time.
“Looking ahead to the future, our technology will provide a future-proof foundation for new models of communications.”
To learn more about how NFON can help you and your end user customers transform the way they work, visit http://www.nfon.com
